194 FIH India workers held for trying to enter factory

Union threatens to intensify protest after the next tripartite meeting scheduled on January 9

Tamil Nadu police arrested 194 workers of FIH India, formerly known as Foxconn India, when they tried to enter the premises of the company’s Sriperumbudur plant on Monday, said E Muthukumar, president of Foxconn India Employees Union.

The factory remains closed since December 22, 2014 owing to lack of orders. The company has also said it will offer voluntary retirement scheme or severance package to employees.  

The union had earlier said workers would enter the factory premises every Monday to mark their protest against stopping production and forcing workers to accept VRS.  Last Monday, too, 168 workers, who had tried to enter the factory premises in a similar fashion, were arrested.

“We will intensify our protest from the second week of January in various ways including closing down the shops in the area and conducting other methods of protest,” said Muthukumar.

A tripartite meeting between the company management, the workers' union and the labour department officials is scheduled on January 9. Five such meetings have been held so far, but no consensus could be reached.

The company, in a notice displayed at the boundary of the facility, said: “We are not able to give jobs to all the workers, since we don’t have orders... Since the management has declared a holiday for the factory, workers are asked not to come to the factory.” It added the company was trying to find a solution through dialogue and requested the workers to have patience and be co-operative.

The company had earlier said it would have to suspend operations if the situation did not improve. It attributed the order crunch to a change in the facility’s customer base and a related change in the manufacturing requirements of its customers in India. It said it was working with the government and labour unions, following the relevant laws. According to the company, it has been fair to 1,700-odd employees, who will be affected by the suspension in operations.

One of the company’s key customers was Nokia, which had suspended operations in November 2014. Nokia, which employed 8,000 workers directly and 21,000 indirectly, had to shut its plant following a tax dispute which prevented its transfer to Microsoft.